Wilson Luc is one of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s most recognizable duelists. The winner of the Shonen Jump Championship in Las Vegas, a Top 8 competitor in seven of this year’s regionals and SJC Columbus, and a premier member of the game’s most dominant team, Luc has left his mark on this year’s Yu-Gi-Oh! scene . . . and we’re only two months in!

Traveling with teammates like Kevin Hor, Augusto Mota, and Theeresak Poonsombat, Luc played the same Warrior deck he ran two weeks ago in Columbus, minus one Enemy Controller. Instead, he ran another Scapegoat. “I switched it out for a Scapegoat due to the amount of aggro play I’m expecting. Scapegoat slows stuff down.” It’s a pretty simple theory, but one that is undoubtedly true. Luc’s been having success with Warrior-based decks for quite a while, and he confessed to me earlier in the month that one of the big reasons he runs it is to deal with the issue of time. Fast decks can dictate pacing and are more difficult to stall.

He was side decking today against FTKO, Burn, and Warrior. “I’m side decking against FTKO, though I don’t really expect to see much of it. Burn, too, is a big one. I’ve managed to go through six or seven regionals so far and haven’t hit a single Burn deck yet.” He smiled, knowing such a feat was rare luck. “I’m also side decking against Warriors with Kinetic Soldier and stuff. It’s important that I be able to beat my own deck when I come up against it.” The mirror match is one of the most dangerous parts of Yu-Gi-Oh!, as it can so easily come down to luck when two topnotch duelists go head to head. By side decking hard into Warrior, Luc has given himself an edge that many other players running the same archetype won’t have access to.

So, what about the man behind the deck? Wilson Luc is a high school student who attends Shonen Jump events on a sponsored basis, thanks to Comic Odyssey. In his free time, he plays basketball and poker (both online and against his friends). As part of team Comic Odyssey, he’s one of about twenty duelists that make concerted efforts to attend and dominate SJCs, competing for fun and profit. For those not keeping track, the team has won three Cyber-Steins so far. “Patrick Wu won the side events in Las Vegas, I won the main event, and T (Theeresak Poonsombat) and Juan Cardenas split in the finals of the side events in Ohio. John Umali won the Cyber-Stein at Gen Con So Cal’s Shonen, but he’s not officially part of the team. He is from the store, though.” Eesh! The team’s track record is made all the more impressive by the fact that there have been only six Cyber-Steins given out—winning half of them is an unprecedented feat.

So, why does he play Yu-Gi-Oh? Luc seemed focused on the money aspect of the event as we talked. “This trip cost a bit more than we thought it would. I’d say we have to win, umm . . . at least two Cyber-Steins while we’re here.” He laughed. So, why Yu-Gi-Oh! and not something else? “I feel it’s very fun, the game, and of course, it’s always fun when you’re good at it. I’ve spent a lot of time with Yu-Gi-Oh! and I started when Legend of Blue-Eyes first came out. At first, when I started playing, I was just looking to have some fun with my friends. But as the game grew, I got more and more into it, and of course the better you are the more fun you have!” Wilson Luc must have unprecedented quantities of fun.

I was curious about Team Comic Odyssey and how they operated. Interviews with top players in Yu-Gi-Oh! aren’t easy to get, as good duelists play very carefully when bracketing starts pairing them up against each other in major events. I haven’t really had the opportunity to talk to T, Cardenas, Luc, or any of the other CO members in the past few months. In particular, I noticed that T and Cardenas tend to roll into venues the night before SJCs to start working side events early. I wanted to know what their strategy was.

“We try to have all of our members qualify to fill all the Top 8 or Top 4 spots, but we all enter the SJC too. Whoever isn’t doing as well as the others will drop and play the sides.” Wait . . . all the Top 8 spots?

It turns out that Team Comic Odyssey is actually more of an “unstoppable horde” than a conventional TCG team. Usually, a successful team has three to six players testing out decks, helping each other qualify for events, and sharing funds to cover hotel and travel budgets. Team Comic Odyssey, though? “We have over twenty members. We’ve got T, his brother Nirut, Kevin Hor, Juan . . . a lot of players.” Having missed out on the Las Vegas SJC, I wasn’t aware that the team was so massive. It’s an impressive roster so deep that it seems unending.

Of course, I wanted to know what Luc thought about the new Limited list. “I like the list a lot, I feel it was much better that they ban Painful Choice instead of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. I felt the cards that became forbidden were nice. The only thing I didn’t like was that the cutting of Mad Scientist (Magical Scientist, for those unfamiliar with the Japanese name) means I can’t use my fusion deck. I also think it was odd to ban cards like Sixth Sense before we even got to use them. It would have been nice to at least get to try the cards before limits were imposed.”

I think it was harsh that they limited D.D. to one. I felt two was sufficient. I think people are still going to run Chaos, but if they do, they’ll need Thunder Dragon and other cards. Warrior decks will still be very good. I think people will use Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys over Vampire Lord, despite it being brought up to two per deck. I think mostly we’ll see the same decks, but I think mostly the changes will be that less people will run Chaos. Of course, it’s good that people can’t run FTKO, too.”

We talked a bit, and we both agreed that the removal of FTKO combo decks was a good thing. I joked about the banning of Makyura the Destructor and the semi-limiting of Dark Scorpion - Chick the Yellow.

“I actually didn’t know the combo until yesterday!” He laughed a bit again.

As always, I had to ask the million dollar question. What did Luc think the chances were of Comic Odyssey taking both Cyber-Steins? “I don’t want to be cocky or anything, but I think about sixty percent. I’m almost positive we’ll take the side events, but I’m not sure about the main event.”

With a strategy like theirs, I think they stand a good chance. And with his relaxed but focused nature and his killer sense of how to win duels, I’d say Wilson Luc stands a good chance of taking today’s main event.